Lessons Learned Running a Small Business in 2011

As 2012 begins, I want to look back over the past year to see what can be learnt from it. Learning from your mistakes is less glamorous than a list of grand New Year’s Resolutions (Though I do like those too), but often more effective at ensuring the next year is even better than the last.

With that in mind, what follows are some of the lessons I have picked out from my own 2011. I would love to hear if these resonate with you.

When looking back at your own year, I’d encourage you not to look for when things went “wrong” as such, but simply to think of how things may have gone differently. That’s what I’ve done. If I were to go back, I may well do some of these things the same, but considering the alternatives is a great way to learn.

Plan For the Follow-Through

When working on a large project, launch day is the natural target. All of your work is dedicated to releasing the product.

That is obviously crucial, but equally important is planning in advance to build on the momentum from your big release. That could mean anything from analyzing its success, planning the next release, or simply capitalizing on the good PR.

I learned this lesson from the relaunch of this site in May. We had been working on it on and off for almost a year, so it had been a huge project, but in the push to launch, we built up a backlog of other work.

I worked on this and wrote a number of articles following the launch, but not enough. The backlog took priority because as far as schedules were concerned, the relaunch project was complete. The follow-through should have been a clearly defined of the project.

Short-Term is More Tempting than Long-Term

How many times have you heard a freelancer say they can’t find the time to work on their site or a personal project? Even though they really enjoy it?

All freelancers hit this issue, and I was no different. I think the reason for this is extremely simple; short term benefits have a clearer and more obvious benefit than long term ones. In my case, PliablePress has been hurt by this. Improving the framework brings me incremental benefits over time, but taking on a large client project pays off right away.

The trick here I believe is a balancing act. If you spend all of your time on short-term goals, you’ll never get past where you are right now. But similarly, if you only work on long-term plans, you may not survive that long. Don’t let one overcrowd the other.

Focus Beats Multitasking

This is a common enough productivity tip that you have likely heard before. Only work on one thing at a time. It makes sense, and it will come as no surprise to you that closing down Twitter and Skype etc. will help you work better.

The bigger lesson is to organize yourself each day so you know which projects you will be working on. You don’t need a step-by-step breakdown of the tasks (Though some people swear by that), a simple list of the top x projects that need your attention today will do.

This is something I see in my work again and again. The days in which I have a clear list of projects to work on, and I tackle them one by one, are my most productive days. Sometimes you can even spend a whole day on just one project, which is fantastic. Focus only on the next task, not all of the tasks.

Sidenote – When making your list, try to avoid adding any murky tasks that don’t have clear completion objectives, e.g. research can go on indefinitely so before you start, make sure you’re aware of how you will know when you’re done.

New Does Not Necessarily Equal Worthwhile

In the tech world, we all love the speed at which things change. The impulse is to try as many new products and services as we can, because who knows what the next game changer will be?

And therein lies the problem. It could be anything, and there are new things coming at you every day. You can’t try them all, and the attempt is a waste of your time. I think a better approach is to let the community try them out for you, and join in when a winner seems to be emerging.

A good example of this is social networks. There are a million different variations out there and new ones all the time. Most won’t catch on, and the time put into them is lost to you. I joined Quora after consistently reading good responses on it for months, but I’m not on Pinterest, Path or any of the other current “hot” networks yet. I’ll check back again in a few months.

The exception is tools that really add value to your business (Webapps you use, development software etc.). Again, I wouldn’t try every single one as it comes out, but every few months, take a look around. It’s fun too, playing with new toys is hard to count as work!

Join The Communities You Value

The web is full of little communities, and you could take part in them from morning to night. On a productivity note, you might try to cut down on this when you have deadlines to meet.

It’s possible to go too far with this though. Once you’ve read a lot on a particular site, and especially after you’ve started enjoying the comment discussions, you can get a lot more out of taking part as well.

I used to post thousands of comments in forums when I was younger, and then again on blogs as I started Pro Blog Design. That’s been somewhat lessened in 2011, so I’m looking forward to starting again. In particular, I’ve massively enjoyed reading Hacker News and Stack Overflow, so it’s about time I joined up.

Planning is Both Impossible and Essential

A slight paradox, but it’s true. It’s impossible to plan for everything that may happen, even over just a short period of time. But with no plan, things inevitably fall into chaos.

I like to think I’m quite organized, and I always have a good idea of how the next 3-4 weeks will flow. I don’t think any of my “ideas” have ever gone 100% to plan though.

Things change. Something will crash, a client will take longer with their feedback, an awesome new project will come up etc.

You need to plan enough to help things run smoothly, but be flexible enough to cope with the inevitable curve balls that come at you. I’m still not sure of the exact formula for this, but it seems that the more experience you have of it, the better your plans and estimates become.

Fight to Work On What You Love

When you run a small business, you’re responsible for everything. I have the pleasure of working with a number of other people throughout the year here, but no matter what, the final responsibility is still mine.

In practice, what this means is that the tasks you can’t easily find someone else to take care of, you do yourself.

That’s fine in the short term, and often even beneficial (Knowing you have to submit your accounts yourself keeps your finances very organized throughout the year!), but it isn’t a long term solution.

You didn’t start a business to work on things you don’t enjoy. There will always be some jobs you just have to do, but when the ones you don’t enjoy are the majority, you need to fix it.

I’m quite happy with where I am in regards to this now; the trick for me was angling towards certain types of projects. Great clients with interesting projects means that more or less everything is fun!

The Truest Test of a Business is When You Leave It

Again, this is something you’ve likely read before, and it’s spot on. In September, I was away for around 3 weeks, and it likely affected every part of the business.

I planned in advance as much as I could, but every change has a knock-on effect. By prioritizing the projects that could most likely be finished before I left, I was leaving others to be done largely after I returned. I was also lining up new projects to be worked on while I was away, but I was still needed at various points to give my thoughts.

In other words, the month before and the month after the trip were crazy. There is no easy fix to this, but removing the dependency on you is definitely a big area to work on if you want your business to grow.

Conclusion

Those were the biggest new “lessons” I would take from my 2011. I’ve deliberately chosen from when things could have gone better, not from when they went great. I’d be happy to share those as well if you like, but learning from mistakes is often the more revealing analysis so they weren’t included here.

In return, I’d love to hear about your year. What have you learnt from it and what will you do differently this year?

Before I finish, I want to apologize for how quiet the past months have been. They’ve been some of the busiest months I’ve ever had, but I’ve missed blogging greatly. January will be a quiet month as well, sorry, but after the 29th, I will be back with a vengeance. I’ve learnt a lot, so there’s a lot I want to share!

If you reached this far in the post, thank you for still being a reader after all this time.

Related Posts

Comments discussion on "Lessons Learned Running a Small Business in 2011"

http://wpshout.com Alex Denning

Couldn’t agree more. As someone who struggles to keep WPShout updated more than once a month, I know exactly what you mean :)

http://www.problogdesign.com/ Michael Martin

Glad to hear I’m not the only one Alex! There’s just not enough time in the day for everything. Blogging especially seems to suffer when clients deadlines are looming.

Still, even once a month would have been a big improvement for me in the past few months! At least you’re still getting a good amount of quality content out there Alex, so congrats. :)

Tim Plaehn

Good post. I constantly try to find a way to balance the short term freelance work which pays the bills and the longer term projects which I hope will pay the bills in the future. I tend to let the projects stagnate and I start the new year with more resolve to make progress on them.

http://www.problogdesign.com/ Michael Martin

That sounds like a very familiar setup Tim! It’s a very difficult balance to make, and it’s hard to even know if you’ve done it well or not.

http://pippinsplugins.com Pippin

Excellent post, Michael. It’s great to see you back and writing again.

The projects that bring about the most long term success ate definitely some of the hardest to keep working on, simply because of e lack of an immediate award. I’ve definitrly had to struggle with the for the last couple months, which have also been my busiest ever.

http://www.problogdesign.com/ Michael Martin

Thanks Pippin! I’ll try to keep writing more. I need to follow your lead more, you’ve been writing loads of great content!

You seem to be managing your long term projects well too. Your collection of plugins is improving constantly, it’s great to see! I think you’ve been doing an awesome job. Can definitely imagine it’s been a very busy time for you though!!

http://www.deluxeblogtips.com Rilwis

Absolutely right! I met the same things as you described (very impressively) above. Thanks for sharing and lightening the thoughts :)

http://pippinsplugins.com Pippin

Getting to the point where I was writing lots of content took a long time. Part of my solution has been to slowly get rid of client projects, which frees up a lot of time.

http://pippinsplugins.com Pippin

Whoops, wrong reply.

http://www.problogdesign.com/ Michael Martin

Rilwis – Thanks for your comment. It seems these are definitely ringing a bell with a few people. It’s nice to know we all hit similar challenges!

Pippin – Haha, no problem. Thanks for checking back in on the comments! :)

I agree with you that in the long run, that is the only solution for transitioning to purely projects you own.

The problem I hit is the temptation when a really big project comes up, or worse, when a repeat client you enjoy working with has a new project. I have such a hard time saying no there.

Have you had similar issues?

http://www.howtogetridofacoldsorex.com how to get rid of a cold sore

I would like to thank you for the efforts you have put in writing this blog. I am hoping the same high-grade blog post from you in the future as well.

http://pippinsplugins.com Pippin

@Michael – I have a huge problem saying “no”. It was especially bad when I was starting out / relying on the income from client projects.

The reward of doing your own projects and not having to deal with clients (even the great ones at times) is awesome. It’s definitely been one of things that has really pushed me to transition to primarily my own projects.

http://www.problogdesign.com/ Michael Martin

Kind of relieved to hear you found it equally difficult. I guess there’s nothing for it other than to make the hard calls sometimes and see what comes of it.

I agree fully about the enjoyment of taking on your own projects. Can be very free-ing to have total control and work at your own pace.

http://seo2.0.onreact.com Tad Chef

Luckily I’ve learned most of these lessons in recent years myself as well, some of them the hard way. It’s good to know that other bloggers who work different industries still have overall similar experiences.

On a sidenote: When planning tasks, writing todo lists always assess in advance how much time you will spend on each task, even email and social media. That has been a huge advantage for my productivity.

Last but not least: Hacker News is not a good place to join. It’s a very biased site led by some venture capitalists who do not respect their users. I’ve been banned there in 2009 for “being idiotic” after I cited the TOS to a troll who kept on offending me.

http://www.problogdesign.com/ Michael Martin

Thanks for the comment Tad, I had a feeling these mistakes would be common to a lot of small businesses on the web, it’s nice to hear that confirmed for you as well.

You must be quite dedicated to time out each task as well, definitely impressive. What do you do if it turns out later on you’ve misjudged one quite badly? (Stop working on it, or let it have a knock on effect on the others?)

That’s my reasoning for not doing it at the minute. I just have a very general idea of what is likely doable in a day, so I have a decent enough amount on the list but never a ridiculous amount.

Timing it out does sound more productive if you can manage it well though, especially for the sorts of tasks you mentioned. Email in particular is a major flaw in my system. Processing until the inbox is empty could take 30 minutes or 3 hours…

(Sorry to hear you had a bad experience with Hacker News though, that’s a shame because there are definitely some great guys on there too I think. Guess that happens in any big community though, always a risk of issues coming up :( )

http://www.wmwebdesign.co.uk/ Keith Davis

Hi Michael
I’m pretty busy at the moment, but not too busy to say…. welcome back.

http://www.problogdesign.com/ Michael Martin

Thank you Keith! Sorry it’s been so long, I really appreciate you still clicking through to the site even after all that time.

http://www.techmywish.com Avinash

Thanks for the great article :)

http://www.allusefultips.com/ technology tips

u post here a niceee & informative post. thanks for sharing.

http://www.printerprinting.com PrinterPrinting

Great article! Thanks for the advice, greatly appreciated!

http://howtojailbreakiphone4s.org/ Mike

Quite a bit of lessons learned on 2011. Hope you will reach your goals in 2012 and make this years as the best one yet.

http://www.cardigantaxi.co.uk jamie Cardigan

Yeah I definitely agree with Focus over Multitasking. Now looking back I realized that I did have a lot of stuff going on at once but that I could have took more time to ensure the best for each project, well thats going to change now, thanks!

http://www.surplustonerinc.com Buy Toner

There is perceptibly a lot to know about this. Very happy to see your article, I very much to like and agree with your point of view. Thank you for sharing.

Cathlene S

It is a great pleasure to read everything you have posted in this site, I cheerfully say thank you. pmp exam time

yeah..defintely nice work here.. i have learn a many things here….thanks for sharing this type of article…keep it up sirjii…..

http://www.gd4k.com/ Marlo Morrison

Thanks for sharing your lessons learned in the past year. I guess, I might start to have a note of priorities and a TO-Do list to organize my task. Multitasking is never easy but it’s needed to fulfill your goals.

http://cloudtheming.com Beau Bridges

Nice article Michael, I can’t stress how important it is to work on ONE project at a time. When you don’t you spread yourself too thin and anxiety comes into effect.

http://www.designed2perform.co.uk Web Design Preston

Defiantly the most important point of this article I feel is ‘Focus Beats Multitasking’. Without doubt jumping from one task to another put at risk client happiness.

http://www.bhomes.com/ UAE Real Estate

Involving in you industry related forums or creating good relationship with fellow blogs around your niche could give you some extra benefit as well.

http://www.richard-f-sands.com/ Richard F. Sands

Outstanding, what an amazing way to convey your current thoughts and opinions? Cool I must say? I do think you’re correct. Hope to read more write-ups from your end and I am seriously looking ahead for it.

http://www.logoblog.org Nora Reed

This is such a Great article. this will gonna help me in my new Project, which i have recently started. thanks for all this idea n the tips.

Nice article, that’s true! You need to work hard to make a business work! Teamwork can be one factor to make it a success

http://www.officialpatriotsonline.com/ Patriots Jerseys Authentic

major American sportWarner did pass The more you think ahead about it, the better it’s going to turn out

http://devon-caravan-parks.com Devon Parks

You are right best to blog now and again rather than not at all, once you stop its hard to start again.

http://www.comparewebhosting.org.uk/ Kevin Thomson

I’m glad i’m not the only one who suffers these issues when running your own business. I’m definitely guilty of preferring to play with new stuff over getting on with what I know works! lol

http://www.epd4k.com/ Feye

It’s been a great read. Running a small business is never easy at first. There are so many things to consider but there are guides, you just need to look for them in order to gain effective ideas to work to in achieving your goals. In marketing, it easier to market online since Social media plays a big role in driving traffic and lead sales if you have a business website.

http://bitzio.com/ Rizza Gamutan

Great article! I’ve learned a lot from it. I guess this will help me a little bit with my business. Thanks for sharing!

http://www.anunciosgratis.net.ve/ Alberto anuncios gratis

very interesting, I think the best way to start a small business is by the boards of big business

http://www.directly.me James Anderson

Great post. Agreed with focusing on a single aspect rather than going all out for everything.
:)

The 2011 was a complicated month for my projects, but they looked nice evolution for this 2012 and the evolution of the theme of html5

http://www.eventpermits.com special event permit

Excellent tips and guidance! You definitely hit the nail on the head with this topic.

http://www.webdesignerlancaster.co.uk/ Web Designer Lancaster

For any small businesses that builds or delivers a product/service, i.e websites, software or SEO etc, you need to get to the point where you can pick and choose you clients, you learn to weed out the time wasters and jack the lads.

I think this is one of the major lessons to learn, the faster you get there the better and less stressful your life will be.

Jaison

I have come across those that advocate job posting and freelancing websites as a great way to generate new business. But, I have found these sites to be rather frustrating to deal with and finally it helps you to find the lower paying jobs that may not be worth your time. Try the http://www.hireprogrammers.in, here they ensure the right quotes for your job.

http://thevocabularyworkshop.com/ Steven

Nice lessons that could be usefulness foe many startups and many medium sized enterprises. Thanks for inspiring!

http://www.goodalternativemedicines.com/ Alternative Medicine

Just wondering why you feature starbucks on the picture. I totally agree with what is stated on this post. Those are something to remember. Thanks

http://www.alaskasalmonwildjerky.com/ best jerky

Thank you, I’d be really welcoming for the strong work you all have competent here to make this page more helpful. show thanks you once again.

http://www.just4designjobs.co.uk Sam

Great article Michael, thanks for putting it together

http://www.pawebgate.com Pan

I think that there are useful pieces of information in this article. It can lead to great results.

http://easycardmessages.com Bill

I found myself nodding throughout this read. I can really relate to the short-term vs long-term focus point that you mentioned. Great read!

http://www.squidoo.com/lensmasters/bueler Bueler

Great ideas for any small business. I can relate to the focus idea and utilizing one task at a time. That is one area I must nail down better. Having a bunch of projects can easily overwhelm anyone and the quality and focus suffers tremendously.

http://navycoolsite.com Pinakibgl

Thanks for the effort u put in to post this blog. that are very useful information.

http://www.web-site.net.au/ websites

This really an excellent post.Great tips and very easy to understand. This will definitely be very useful for me when I get a chance to start my blog. Thanks for the resource.

http://www.web-site.net.au/seo australian seo

I just spent almost 1 hour and not getting sick of this blog. It keeps you here because it has good information. Readers, I will give you a hint:bookmark it. Cheers!

http://www.web-site.net.au/webdesign web design australia

This blog is an exact representation of skills. I appreciate the blogger for posting the most excellent thought.

http://www.propertiesinmumbai.com mumbai real estate

Nice Post. I have learned a lot. I guess this will help me a little bit in future. Thanks for sharing!

http://sikhoindia.blogspot.in/ Sandesh

I like reading every article or post which inspires me to do something which can change my life.Your post teach many aspects of business.

Thanks for explaining business aspects thoroughly.

Saranya

Clients, when they post projects to the freelancing sites failed to realize the factor “the selling cycle”. These job posting sties have long selling cycle and on an average project is taking 20 days from the time it is originally posted to the final selection of a freelancer. Recently I visited http://www.hireprogrammers.in and completed my work in lesser time and money. Thanks to the hire programmers team

http://www.wildpurpledesign.co.uk/ Web designer Bournemouth

I really enjoyed reading this post. I wonder what useful insights you will have at the end of this year…

http://www.customonit.com Customonit.com

This is a wonderful way to plan your next year business activities depending on the losses and experiences you made last year. One thing makes you successful in business to make analysis, conduct and attend events, participation in seminars of successful business models. This will really give you courage to take risk and move forward because businesses cannot be successful until you take risks.

http://www.lowongankerja2012.net raihan

I wanted to thank for this great read!I really enjoyed reading. One of the more impressive blogs Ive seen. Thanks so much

http://www.designpanoply.com Design Panoply

Very insightful. Maybe I’ll write something similar when the next year rolls around.

Thanks for taking the time to put all your thoughts down on paper.

– John

http://www.1stwebdesigner.com Dainis Graveris

Hello Martin,
really enjoyed your honesty in this article! A lot of thoughts I perfectly understand when I read, because I’ve been there too, I bet a lot of people have been and are in similar positions.

I know this is old post looking back to past year, but at least I enjoy such nuggets sharing experiences the most!

Good point about checking how well business can work without you. If you cannot go away from business, its not passive, it’s basically 9-5 job without 1 week, 2 week holidays at all. Having your own business is more fun, but not easier.

Good luck on figuring out how to replace yourself. I went to underground seminar 8 this year and learned that you need to focus on 5% you do the best and outsource, delegate other 95%. You need to learn to trust others and become master to managing people, you need just to “activate” everything.

Good luck again, Martin, nice read!

http://www.philsseoservices.co.uk Phil – Internet Marketing Cheshire

I have run a local market business and also a online business and am constantly learning but keeping the customer happy is this best thing i think personally

http://wordpressguru.com.au Wordpress Dev

Thanks Michael,

A good read for me. I am myself planning to go freelancing too. And doing some studies on how to setup.

http://www.entertechno.com Nirmal Kumar Pandit (Entertechno.com)

All the things which is mentioned above, these are best to apply who want to grow in theier business. Thanks to share this opportunity to increase and improve busineess.